Hard Prayer vs Easy Prey

Jeremiah 2:23-25

"How can you say, 'I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals'? See how you behaved in the valley; consider what you have done. You are a swift she-camel running here and there, a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving— in her heat who can restrain her? Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her. Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you said, 'It's no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.'


We are such easy marks for the things of this world. Satan barely has to try half the time because we are out there, sniffing like a deer in heat at all the things. We open ourselves up to the things of the world and are then ripped apart so easily.

I'm tired of being 'easy.' I think the problem is that we've grown "accustomed to the desert" when we should be out of it by now. We're satisfied there. It's okay to be dry - it's normal to live an empty, defeated life. But it's not okay, it's not the normal life to be settled in the desert. The Promised Land is available and it is a place of water, of fruit - of life.

This will take deep faith and hard prayer to keep us from being such easy prey for the world. We have to at least make them try. It's only when you resist do you find out the full strength of an enemy. Quick capitulation only reveals how weak you are, not how strong they are. But when you resist and fight, the enemy is forced to fight, and then the extent of their power is revealed. Only then will you find out that there are limitations to them, that truly greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world.

Here's the challenge from Jeremiah 2:25: If you find that you have to force yourself away from the world, if the draw to Egypt is stronger than the draw to Christ - then I think you may have to rethink your relationship with Him. If you are an easy mark for the world, then that's where your heart really is and you may have to examine whether you are truly born again, into the new nature. Christians can struggle with the world, but the difference is they know it. Even though they struggle with it, in their heart of hearts they desire Christ more. If you say, "It's no use, I love foreign gods, I must go after them," then you are dead already.